1. Field of Art
The invention generally relates to social networking and more specifically to personalizing a third-party application based on user-specific data from a social network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Social networks, or communities of entities that share interests or activities or are interested in exploring the interests of other entities, have become more prevalent. Particularly, social networking websites have allowed users or entities to more efficiently communicate information among each other. For example, a user may post contact information, background information, job information, hobbies or other user-specific data to a social networking website. Other users or entities can then review the posted data by browsing user profiles or searching for profiles including specific data.
Some social networking websites incorporate a system for connecting users to content most relevant to each user. For example, users are grouped according to one or more common attributes in their profiles, such as geographic location, employer, job type, music preferences or other attributes. Additionally, some social networks allow a user to access one or more third-party applications from the social network. These third-party applications are run within the social networking websites. Such applications can extend the functionality of the social networking website, providing users with new and interesting ways to communicate, collaborate, and interact with each other. For example, a social network website includes a “widget,” which allows a user to access data or services provided by a third-party. Hence, the “widget,” or a similar user interface, allows a social networking website user to interact with a third-party application separate from the social networking website.
Although the social networking website allows a user to receive content from the social network that is personalized based on user data, information provided by a third-party application is not personalized unless the user separately provides information to the third-party application. Hence, the user must provide separate sets of data to the social networking website and the third-party application to receive personalized content from both sources. The third-party application cannot access user data stored by the social networking website associated with the user.